The purpose of The Christian Working Woman is to equip and encourage Christians in the workplace to love Christ more, to live their daily lives by biblical principles, and to go to their jobs as ambassadors for Jesus Christ. For more information on our ministry go to: www.christianworkingwoman.org.

Tuesday, September 27, 2016

Here are some valuable lessons that God has taught me about polishing my personality so that it would become more Christlike. You don't need to change your personality, you just need the Holy Spirit to smooth off the rough edges. I then thought of a sentence that I had read about that made a huge difference:

What difference will this make in twenty-four hours?

This helped me establish a rule for myself: I am not allowed to expend any energy or emotion on anything that won't matter in twenty-four hours. The secret to this trick is to force myself to have a longer perspective. As soon as I can get my eyes off the here and now and look ahead even a short twenty-four hours, my coping ability increases immensely. And all because I look at it from a long-term rather than a short-term perspective.

For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is see, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:17-18)

Much of the Christian walk doesn't come naturally, I've discovered. Living by biblical principles has to be a God thing, something that He does in me. It's more than just being disciplined or hardworking or persistent. It has to begin with a motivation and a will on your part that is God-inspired and God-empowered.

For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. (Luke 9:24)

Friday, September 23, 2016

Starting this coming Tuesday we're going to begin a new blog series based off of Mary's book Looking with Forever Eyes. This book is available in our bookstore, which you can access by clicking this link. Looking with Forever Eyes explains that as Christians, once we are born again, we have the ability that we rarely use to see things with the fresh insight and perspective of the kingdom of God—our forever eyes.

Throughout the book Mary explains that anyone who has been reborn has the gift! This gift allows us to see things that are both invisible and eternal. With this perspective shift we change to be more like Jesus. These forever eyes help us gain a unique take on everything around us:

Your friends, family, and other people in your life

Your success and failures

Your money and possessions

The way you spend your time

Your marriage or singleness

and more

Keep reading over the next few weeks to learn more about your forever eyes and how to use them!

Tuesday, September 20, 2016

3. God's Plans Are Always Best
Once you have accepted the previous basic truths, they have to lead us to this third and most important conclusion: God's plans for us are always superior to any other plans. If you believe God is God and He cares for you, then you cannot logically deny this truth: God is smarter than you are at running your life. Therefore, you can trust Him. Not only can you trust Him, but it is the logical thing to do. Nothing else makes any sense.
Just look at what the Scriptures tell us about God's intentions toward us:

"No good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless." (Ps. 84:11b)

"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us." (Eph. 3:20)

"Fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him lack nothing. The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing." (Ps. 34:9-10)

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." (Jer. 29:11)

The irrefutable, logical conclusion is clear. There simply can be no middle ground. If we believe with our hearts, not just our heads, that God is God, eternal, all-powerful, holy and perfect, and that this very God cares for us more than any earthly being could ever care, and that His plans for our lives are far better than anything we could maneuver on our own, we have to get over our fear of trusting Him. He can be nothing but trustworthy. He will lead us into the best paths. To fail to relinquish the control of our lives to Him would be foolhardy and disastrous.

It is arrogance on our part if we refuse to trust God. To fail to trust Him at every turn in your life is a grave and serious sin. It is pride at its very worst.

Whatever the fear that is keeping you from trusting God, it is unfounded and unreasonable, and it is a trick of Satan to keep you from the joy and peace of a trusting, yielding life. Let go of those fears today, confess your sin of unbelief, get into God's Word daily and get to know God better, and you, too, can get over your fear of trusting God.

Tuesday, September 6, 2016

So many of us hang on to the controls of our lives, afraid to trust God, as if to say that we know more of what's better for us than God does, and we are more trustworthy than He is. Of course we don't think those thoughts; we just live our lives that way.

Your fear of God may be revealed in symptoms such as these: You're afraid of not having enough money to support your lifestyle or retirement. You're afraid of not achieving your career goals. You're afraid of being rejected. You're afraid of losing the approval of someone or some ones. Whatever your fear of the future is—and it is always a fear of what might or might not happen—its root cause is that you really area afraid to let go of the controls of your life and simply trust God's plan to be a good plan.

Believing the Basics 1. Learning to trust God begins by reminding ourselves of His character and power, and then asking ourselves if we really believe God is who He says He is.

Here are some verses that describe the nature of God: God is the only God

"This is what the Lord says—Israel's King and Redeemer, the Lord Almighty: I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God." (Isaiah 44:6)

2. Knowing God's Personal Care

Assuming we have assimilated the previous basic truth, the next important issue is to understand how this same God feels about us. After all, we are but specks in a great mass of humanity and in a vast universe. Do we make any difference to God. Again scripture gives the answer:

God does not lose track of you!

"Why do you say O Jacob, and complain, O Israel, "My way is hidden from the Lord, my cause is disregarded by my God?" Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. (Isaiah 40:27-28)

God knows you intimately

You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely." (Psalm 139:1-4)